According to the most recent United States Census of Agriculture, the average age of a Montana rancher is sixty years old, and that number is getting higher every year. Nationwide, farmers and ranchers who are sixty-five and older increased by twelve percent, while farmers and ranchers aged thirty-five to sixty-four decreased by nine percent. The challenges facing young producers are real, with high land prices, access to capital, and availability of land being foremost on the list. Younger producers who are finding success must be determined, hard-working, and creative…please meet Kevin and Sasha Keller!
Both Kevin and Sasha grew up in agricultural families north of Montana’s Hi-Line where hard work was common, and money was often tight. Kevin spent summers ranching with his grandfather south of the Bears Paw Mountains where he learned the ins and outs of commercial cattle. He excelled at rodeo at a young age and became a high school state champion in saddle bronc. While attending Montana State University Northern in Havre, he qualified for college nationals, which led to a career in the professional rodeo circuit. In all, Kevin spent nearly two decades on the pro circuit, traveling across the Western U.S. and Canada, qualifying for the Montana Pro Rodeo Circuit Finals fifteen years in a row. When he wasn’t on the road, Kevin was working. At age twenty-two he took out a loan on land near Turner, Montana, where he began ranching under his brand.
Sasha grew up near Rudyard, Montana, as she puts it, “In the middle of nowhere, even by Montana standards.” She drove combines as a teenager and spent warm fall days helping harvest wheat, barley, and pulse crops on the family farm. After high school Sasha attended Carroll College on a basketball scholarship. Upon graduation, she moved to Bozeman and took a job in human resources, but soon realized she missed agriculture. She recalled, “I wanted to get back home and back into agriculture. I missed the people and values. The monotony of office and city life was eating away at me. I knew I may make less money, but it wasn’t about the money, it was about getting back to the lifestyle, getting my hands in the dirt again.”
It was around that time when Kevin and Sasha met through a mutual friend and were married. They began ranching together, splitting time between Turner, Stanford, and Eden, Montana. Kevin recalled that they were constantly stressed out hauling cows from one parcel to another trying to stay afloat. “We were just too spread out.” With a young family and kids in school, the Kellers hoped to find a place where they could consolidate and put down permanent roots. Kevin recalled, “We got tired of being pulled in every direction. We wanted a place where we could saddle up and ride out of our own backyard.”
In 2021 that opportunity was presented when longtime rancher and friend Stephen Skites called. “It was out of the blue,” Sasha remembered. “Stephen was a friend, but there had never been any talk of us purchasing the ranch.” On the call, Stephen explained that he didn’t have any family interested in ranching and was getting up in age. It was important to him that the land go to a young ranch family rather than an investor or other interest. He wanted the Kellers to be that family.
Kevin and Sasha were surprised and grateful for the opportunity. “There’s no way we could compete with out-of-state money,” Kevin noted. “It meant a lot to us that Stephen reached out.” The property had been in the Skites family for generations. Stephen’s father Frank had inherited the ranch from his father who had proved up on the land over a hundred years earlier. Having the opportunity to purchase a contiguous grass ranch was, as Kevin put it, “An opportunity we simply couldn’t pass up.”
The ranch sits in the shadow of the Little Belt Mountains in Judith Basin County and is a healthy mix of native grasslands, improved hay ground, and spring-fed coulees. Sharp-tailed grouse, Hungarian partridge, elk, mule deer, and white-tailed deer are common on the property. Sasha explained that the ranch is full of character, with hundred-year-old fenceposts, corrals, and natural springs throughout. While making improvements to the property, the Kellers have made a concerted effort to keep much of that original character in place. “We’ve built some new corrals and water facilities, redeveloped springs, and made some improvements to manage cattle better, but, we’ve kept as much of the Skite’s original fencing and infrastructure as possible as a way to honor those who came before us.”
With the improvements, the ranch has realized an increase in carrying capacity for both cattle and wildlife. Changes to grazing rotations that benefit grasslands have resulted in upland bird numbers higher than anything the Kellers have seen before. “We’ve got more sharp-tail and huns than ever before around here,” noted Kevin.
Even at a good price, purchasing the ranch put the Kellers in a situation with little room for error. “In ranching, there isn’t a good way to protect against drought, or sickness, or a bad market,” Kevin explained. “You can’t pay for land with cattle anymore, and even if you do everything right, you may still end up giving the keys to the bank.”
One of the challenges facing ranchers in Montana is the disconnect between land prices and commodity prices. Beginning in 2019, land values in Montana started on an upward trend and have yet to flatten out, while cattle markets, on the other hand, have been mostly flat, with 2023 being the one exception. Properties like the Keller Ranch that have recreational and hunting amenities demand a premium, with prices per acre double and triple what they were pre-2019. Rangelands that don’t boast obvious recreational value have also seen double-digit appreciation year over year. “It’s a two-edged sword,” Kevin laughed. “We like seeing the elk, but we didn’t buy this place for the elk, we bought it to ranch. We have hundreds of elk, especially in the winter, and they can be destructive for the property, but they belong here, just as they did a hundred years ago.”
When it comes to conservation, the Keller’s perspective is generational. “We thought long and hard about whether to do the conservation easement,“ they recalled. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but we felt like we wanted to put expectations in place for the ranch. It’s been a ranch for a hundred years, and we want it to remain a ranch for the next hundred.” With the conservation easement in place, the Kellers now have a firm picture for the next generation. The land will remain in agriculture, which is what they want for their family going forward.
The conservation easement funding through the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s Agricultural Land Easement program and The Montana Land Reliance (MLR) provided the financial backing for the deal. “I’ll be honest, the financial incentives were a big part of our decision to do the easement,” Kevin recalled. “Because of the conservation easement, we are no longer at risk of losing the ranch. If something happens to me or Sasha, the ranch will stay in the family. The easement allows us to maintain this lifestyle, which is such a blessing.”
The permanent protection of the Keller Ranch is a blessing for all of Montana. The ranchlands and wildlife habitat will remain intact, and a family will remain on the land. Through their hard work and conservation ethic, the Kellers have conserved an important piece of Montana heritage, and with a little luck, have lowered the average age of ranchers in the state, which looks good on everyone!
The Montana Land Reliance is pleased to recognize the Keller family as the 2023 recipient of the William F. Long Award, which highlights a landowner who has gone above and beyond in conserving ranchlands and upland bird habitat in Montana. “This is our way of life… the dream is at the tip of our hands, and we have to work hard every day to hold it and maintain it,” explained Kevin. We wish the Keller family the very best and thank them for trusting MLR to be a partner in holding on to that dream.
